1. Technical Field
The instant disclosure generally relates to non-terrestrial communications and, in particular, to systems, methods and techniques of seamlessly providing, in non-terrestrial environments, features that are available to wireless or mobile devices in terrestrial environments.
2. Background
Currently, existing airlines and other transportation companies provide communication services to mobile or wireless devices (e.g., cellular phones, smart devices, laptops, tablet computers, etc.) when such devices are on-board a vehicle while the vehicle is in en route to a destination. However, the delivery of terrestrial or native features (e.g., roaming, texting, simultaneous calls, etc.) to mobile or wireless devices while a vehicle is in transit presents difficulties. Typically, to support native, terrestrial features at a mobile or wireless device in a non-terrestrial environment, cellular base stations such as “picocells” are installed on-board the vehicle, and the mobile device connects, via the cellular radio of the mobile device and the on-board cellular base stations, to an on-board network. In some cases, hardware in addition to the cellular base stations is also installed on-board the vehicle. This extraneous infrastructure is both limiting and extremely expensive. Moreover, the radio transmissions produced on-board the vehicle may interfere with ground-based cellular systems. For example, if mobile devices on-board the vehicle cannot find an adequate cellular band to which they may connect (e.g., when on-board cellular base stations are deactivated), the mobile devices will automatically increase their power, which may interfere with ground-based terrestrial cell sites as well as quickly drain the batteries of the mobile devices.
Some existing terrestrial communications systems are able provide features that are native to a mobile device's home system while the mobile device is connected to a terrestrial Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) network having base stations that are fixedly in connection with the ground. Such Wi-Fi roaming and feature provisions, though, may be limited in a non-terrestrial environment, e.g., while an aircraft is in flight. For example, as an aircraft goes through flight states such as taxi, take-off, climbing, cruising altitude, descent and landing, the regulations for use of radio frequency transmissions vary, which affect the ability to seamlessly provide native or terrestrial features at the mobile device. In addition, the availability of a connection to a ground-based network may vary as the vehicle travels, which may also affect the ability to provide native or terrestrial features at the mobile device.